Is Narendra Modi's Gujarat Really Vibrant?

Bangalore: Everything is black and white somewhere! Gujarat's grey areas are now being increasingly noticed. While Gujarat may have a high per capita income leading to the rhetoric of a 'vibrant Gujarat', much on the lines of 'India shining', its economic model seems to be faulty somewhere with glaring deficiencies in certain developmental indexes. Few are aware that Gujarat has been faring poorly in many areas for many years now. About two decades back, Gujarat's growth story was quiet different. The state had grown between 12 and 13percent when the national average was only 6percent. Gujarat today has an average growth rate of 11percent with the national growth rate at 10percent. This should tell some of the story. Gujarat is now very much rich. In What? Poor People!

Gujarat may be creating some of India's wealthiest, but it is not known widely that the state has the highest percentage of poor population, an incredible 31.8percent. 31.8percent population of Gujarat are below the poverty line, followed by Andhra Pradesh (29.9 per cent), Tamil Nadu (29.8 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (22.9percent), Punjab (20.9percent), Kerala (19.7percent), Jammu and Kashmir (13.2percent) and Haryana (2.1percent).

hi i am rakesh from Gonda UP . i lived in Gujrat nealry one and half year in diffrent part of gujrat . its really like a developed country . i measury focused there on infrastructure , developments, roads, power, health .... gujju peoples are very cooprative and simple people n high thinking.

7:
i drive down to gujarath twice a year for the last 10 years and i have personally noted the development and speed of work in gujarath. earlier we wasted a lot of time in traffic jams it is not there , the flyovers were constructed in record period of time and during the construction alternative tarred road was there where as in maharashtra it takes several years to make a flyover. in jamnagar we could play cricket between two buildings, today an ant cannot crawl between the same buildings, standard of living has improved.

8:
I came across an interesting article.
It was headed
Telling the wrong story
DIPANKAR GUPTA Oct 6, 2011, 12.00AM IST Times of India
Is the Congress afraid of winning in Gujarat?

Nothing else explains why it lets Narendra Modi tom tom development when it should have been the Congress banging the drums. The economic achievements of governments before Modi's read like an award citation, but too much secularism has since led the Congress astray. It should have been the showcasing its past performance to regain Gujarat.

Look also at the good memories the Congress is erasing.

In 1991, a full 10 years before Modi arrived,
as many as 17,940 out of 18,028 villages were already electrified.

The Ukai plant, which uses washed coal to generate power, was also pre-Modi as was the asphalting of 87.5% of Gujarat roads.

In 1980 to 81, Gujarat's share in manufacturing at the national level was only 16.29percent, but by 2000 to 01 it rose to an impressive 28.71percent.

· Not surprising then that between 1994-2001, well before Modi, Gujarat's state domestic product grew at 10%-13%, way higher than the all-India average.

Since 1980, Gujarat has been India's poster state. Modi had nothing to do with the world's largest ship breaking yard coming up in Bhavnagar, nor with the setting up of the Ambani refinery in Jamnagar. Well before Modi, Gujarat accounted for 45% of India's petroleum products, roughly 18% of the country's cargo handling, 23% of our total requirement for crude oil and 30% of our natural gas needs from offshore basins.

In addition, Gujarat, since the 1990s, produces as much as 78% of the country's salt, 98% of soda ash and 26% of India's pharmaceutical products. Because of chief minister Chimanbhai Patel's intervention in 1993, port traffic in this state jumped from a mere 3.18 million tonnes in 1981 to 86.17 million tonnes in 2001. In the same period, Gujarat's share of national port traffic increased from 45.36% to above 76% and has stayed there ever since. Modi's decade has not made that percentage grow.

During the eventful 1990s, Gujarat successfully augmented 35% of its power generation capacity. It also closed down five major loss-making public sector units, initiating instead a variety of public private partnerships. In fact, an early short-lived BJP government under Keshubhai Patel in 1995-96 did some good work too. In particular, he was instrumental in setting up Gujarat's Industrial Development Board, but Modi has blanked him out from public memory as well.

If Gujarat's agriculture is prospering today, it is because the state has begun to receive Sardar Sarovar waters from 2002. Once again, Modi had little to do with the inauguration of this project, but he was at the right place at the right time to take the credit for it. If there was ever a person who reaped what somebody else had sown, then that is Modi.

Gujarat also is not alone in posting agricultural growth rates above the national average, even backward Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh handsomely beat the all India figure. Finally, it is not as if Gujarat is overall the richest state either, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and Kerala are all much better off, primarily because they have lower rural poverty rates.

At the same time, to round off this number, it must be acknowledged Gujarat was never poor. True, it was a lowly eighth in terms of prosperity in 1960, but it has been at number three since 1990 and continues to hold that spot. Modi may not have self-started Gujarat's development, but he certainly kept the engine running.

In line with this, Modi should be credited for taking a few initiatives of his own. For example, while Gujarat's villages were all lit, it is also a fact that the state's electricity board was bankrupt in 2002. Loans were arranged to overcome this shortfall and power thefts too were curtailed by police monitoring. Gujarat also did well in making the central government's 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' work, especially in connection with the girl child. Yet, the percentage fall in Gujarat's infant mortality and poverty rates are well below the national average.

Please read the article - it says that Gujarat is not developed. You people want it both ways
1. Gujarat is backward - educational level below Bihar (Ha Ha Ha)
2. If not backward Congress laid the foundation.
Do you see the contradiction between these two points?

.... Rajiv Gandhi Foundation - chaired by Smt Sonia Gandhi has given BEST CM award to Shri Narendrabhai Modi..... why?
- Why they have not given it to earlier congress govt of Gujarat ? or Congress Ruled CM?

They also agree that Shri Narendrabhai Modi has done best works in Gujarat..... If opposition party agrees, then why we are fighting amongst each other?